Abstinence only programs might work? WTF

// added February 02, 2010 // 56 comments //
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jubal

more from News:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/01/AR201...

It reminds me of the saying "might be pregnant". Either you are or you aren't. What is this maybe crap?

Abstinence only programs are a left over from the Bush Regime. Billions of dollars of aid to countries, states and counties were tied to their adherence to this policy of Abstinence Only education. Many studies have been undertaken to see if it truly is effective. The abstinence only policy was modeled after Nancy Reagan's war on drugs policy "Just say NO!"

However the truth in terms of data is more telling. According to this recent study, they concluded that Abstinence Only education programs "MIGHT" work or "CAN" work. But in my opinion the study is flawed. What they didn't take into consideration is what I would call the "FIB" or "LIE" factor. Why would a teenager admit to having premarital sex if premarital sex is taboo and could lead to sanctions and punishments if parents or elders in their church find out? How could they ensure the accuracy of the data collected in the surveys? Short answer is "They Can't!"

The article says..."Only about a third of sixth- and seventh-graders who completed an abstinence-focused program started having sex within the next two years, researchers found. Nearly half of the students who attended other classes, including ones that combined information about abstinence and contraception, became sexually active." "I think we've written off abstinence-only education without looking closely at the nature of the evidence," said John B. Jemmott III, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who led the federally funded study. "Our study shows this could be one approach that could be used."

The Obama administration has reduced funding to Abstinence based programs by over $170 Million dollars.

But I can tell you, because I volunteer for a youth education program in Eugene, Oregon, that Abstinence Only education programs here were an absolute failure. Teen pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted diseases actually increased. But in schools were comprehensive sex education was offered, including demonstration on how to use condoms and other protection devices, the rates went down. The effect was so pronounced that the State of Oregon adopted the comprehensive approach for the whole State.

This remains a controversial subject because proponents of Abstinence based education programs claim that teaching kids about condoms and safe sex actually gives them a license to go out and do it. But the supporters of Comprehensive education programs have a lot of data to back up their position, whereas the Abstinence based programs don't.
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56 comments // Abstinence only programs might work? WTF

  • Almibry
    • +1
      Almibry  

    • I'm a firm believer in premarital sex. Why would you want to marry someone when you have no idea if you will enjoy sex with them? And yes, before you go there, I will raise my kids with this idea in mind. I'm not going to give them birth control and tell them to go bone their brains out. I'd run the idea of abstinence by them and then demonstrate how to use condoms on a banana... And then eat it in front of them.
      I've been sexually active for a while, way before most of my friends in high school would admit to "doing it" but I feel I must add that all of my abstinent friends from high school, and I do literally mean all of them, are now single mothers. Not that they were really my friends, bible thumpers don't like whores. Ha ha ha. They all got kicked out of their churches whereas I'm still allowed to dance naked under the full moon. Bitches.
      I think it would be much smarter to raise your children to be good people while also take into consideration that they are people and will do stupid things. Expect that they will get laid before you're ready for it and make sure that they are protected, emotionally as well as physically. You can't tell them "there is only one right way and you may die a virgin because you haven't found "the one" in time" because I see no proof that there is only one. I've been in love 3 times as of 02/08/10 2:44 am, and I'm glad I had sex with 2 of the 3 because those are some of the sweetest memories of my life. It's unfair to expect every unmarried individual out there to resist the natural programming of our bodies. We are made to reproduce! That is our purpose as humans, to make as many little pink screaming, smelly, things as we can. To carry on our DNA, and for the survival of the human race in general.
      It would be smarter to teach our kids every option available so when they do have sex, it will be on their terms.

    • 1 month ago
  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  
    • Almibry:

      Almibry, for some reason that reminds me of a time I went for my routine exam with my OB/GYN. I'd always brought along my little boy, as with any other doctor visits.

      This time, for some reason, my doc really nicely surprised me. She called my son (who was about nine by then), over to her side, and said, "Here, I want to show you something."

      So she pulls out the probe she's about to use on my ultrasound and she opens a drawer and pulls out a box of condoms.

      She then shows my son how to unwrap the packet, then how to properly unroll it onto the probe.

      She talks to him the way I always have -- real words (no body nicknames) -- and tells him/shows him just why a condom may help prevent both disease and pregnancy.

      When she's finished, she hands him another condom packet, and asks him to do the very same thing, which he does.

      Then she says, "Just as I told my own two sons, wear THREE!"

      This was when AIDS and the HIV virus were now in the news every single day, and we'd personally already lost two of our friends to the deadly disease.

      I was so appreciative of my doctor to treat my son with such respect and intelligence, and to know full well that I'd approve 100%.

      As for premarital sex, by all means.

    • 1 month ago
  • shizukarose
    • 0
      shizukarose  
    • Almibry:

      "they will get laid before you're ready for it and make sure that they are protected, emotionally as well as physically."

      But like I said before with the same mindset it's very unrealistic to say, "you'll be irresponsible enough to get laid before you're ready but remember to use a condom" to a 15 year old then be surprised when they end up pregnant. MAYBE to a 17+ year old but I remember what I was like at 15 and my age group and it's dumb to expect them to treat sex like adults and older teens do when biologically they aren't.

    • 1 month ago
  • jubal
  • Almibry
  • shizukarose
  • Almibry
    • 0
      Almibry  
    • shizukarose:

      Look dude. Lemme break it down like Barney for you. Just for a reference purposes I included the preceding sentence, though if you feel like reading my comment at all, you will see that I was fairly consistent throughout by assigning they to child and you to parent. "raise your/parent children to be good people while also take into consideration that they/child are people and will do stupid things. Expect that they/child will get laid before you're/parent ready for it and make sure that they/child are protected, emotionally as well as physically. You/parent can't tell them "there is only one right way and you/child(here I was pretending that you[parent] were talking to you're child, and it would be rude to talk to them[child] as if they weren't there, so you would use "you", right) may die a virgin because you/child haven't found "the one" in time" because I see no proof that there is only one." Now that we're done with the English lesson, could it be that you are focusing on semantics because you have no real argument other than the fact that God comes to you in your sleep and tells you the right way to do things? Because I'm going to hell it doesn't matter that I made a valid point when I mentioned the fact that I've been in love 3 times and not with any of the 3 now and I'm glad I didn't marry the fools. I have sweet memories of laying them but that's where the sweetness ends. If you found your one true love, congrat's, but the idea that we were meant for only one other person on the planet is a new development, in the last 600 years or so. It seems to me that marriage is an invention of man because if God was as anal about it as man makes him/God out to be then he would have said something sooner.

    • 1 month ago
  • shizukarose
    • +3
      shizukarose  

    • "Dutch have the lowest teen pregnancy rates and abortion rates in the world:
      http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article5....

      educate early... people have sex."

      Yes they do and they have it for a number of reasons other than a good sex education, the Dutch are more family oriented and parents and more open to sex to their kids, I think it even mentions it in the article. Therefore the kids do not have to hide sex. I think we need good sex ed and abstinence teach both for godsake what harm is that?

      Oh and btw you can't give 14 year old and 15 years old condoms and birth control and EXPECT them to act like an adult with it. Just being realistic. Their brains are still developing.

    • 1 month ago
  • Chique
  • jubal
    • 0
      jubal  

    • I think sex education should be like it is in the book "Brave New World". Children are encouraged to play erotically in public.

    • 1 month ago
  • 02
    • 0
      02  

    • A pack of natterers trying to have some girl hang on a little longer.
      Are there any of them that aren't just nurturing some perverted desire "to be the one". Or stick their nose into where it doesn't belong?

    • 1 month ago
  • lifestudentno83
    • +3
      lifestudentno83  

    • Abstinence doesn't work for everyone. Stop trying to put a round peg in a square hole before you sons and daughters find the round peg to stick inside her hole.

      Talk to your kids about sex. Not just the scary shit like STDs and AIDS, tell them about condoms, about contraceptives, peer pressure and abstinence... the whole damned 9 yards and two to grow on.

      Or don't. See how you like being a grandmother at age 43 because you decided that your political views were more important than your child's future, and see how fast your relationship deteriorates when you both become the social pariahs of your friendly cul-de-sac because you were too conservative to tell your kid to make little johnny put on a small piece of latex that would stop Johnny Junior from entering this world prematurely and before both parents have a college education. And that's only IF they are lucky enough not to catch something.

      Because it's not that abstinence doesn't work. Some kids hold out until well into their 20's. It's that it doesn't ALWAYS work. Which is why you need to teach kids proper contraceptive use as a back-up plan and not a go-ahead to have sex. Chances are, whether you teach them about condoms or not, they are going to have sex at some point.

      Wouldn't you rather them go into it protected instead of naive and ignorant?

      Isn't it a parent's RESPONSIBILITY to protect their children as best they can?

    • 1 month ago
  • ibrake4rappers13
  • ibrake4rappers13
  • comicahzy
  • ibrake4rappers13
  • comicahzy
  • ibrake4rappers13
  • EthicalVegan
  • ibrake4rappers13
  • jubal
  • EthicalVegan
  • Almibry
    • 0
      Almibry  
    • ibrake4rappers13:

      What's the big deal about getting married? It's outdated in all honesty, I personally wouldn't get married unless I wanted children (which I don't, so I have LOTS of premarital sex, in fact that's the only kind I'm interested in seeing how I hear it stops after marriage), or I might get bored and feel like participating in an outdated ritual to better blend in with the locals, but I'm sure I'd get it wrong and I know it wouldn't mean anything.

    • 1 month ago
  • regjoeschmo
  • EthicalVegan
    • +3
      EthicalVegan  
    • regjoeschmo:

      I never gave body parts nicknames, so when I had my son, he was brought up with a "real" language. Penis, vagina, breasts, etc. So he was already more comfortable about his own body, and the way to communicate about it, should he find the need (say, privately, with his physician).

      So it was easy, a bit at a time, to also teach him all about reproduction -- everything imaginable -- and, yes, of COURSE based on his age at those times of discussion.

      Knowing as much as one can about sexuality is the way to hopefully keep common sense in mind when those crazy hormones start kicking in.

    • 1 month ago
  • csmonut
    • +2
      csmonut  

    • I heard this on NPR today...what a joke.
      That program also pulled millions of dollars in funds to organizatoins fighting aids and other STDs in third world countries.
      If they didn't adhere to abstinence only, they lost their funding.
      Information is power and the only way to empower young people is to give them the CORRECT information they need.

    • 1 month ago
  • kitteneater
  • comicahzy
  • kurthsb27
  • EthicalVegan
  • eternal_springs
    • +3
      eternal_springs  

    • Somewhere, and I don't know where right now, there are the numbers; actual numbers...not a study; showing that when sex education is taught - honestly and openly - teen pregnancy and the spread of STDs are lower than when sex education is NOT taught. Information is a positive thing.

      There isn't anything wrong with encouraging abstinence, but our children need information to protect themselves. Teaching kids to not have sex will not stop them from having sex. Raging hormones will win out.

      People are taught not to smoke, not to take illegal drugs, not to drink and drive, not to kill, and so on....yet it still happens. We are human beings.

    • 1 month ago
  • jubal
  • KevJ
    • +1
      KevJ  

    • this study is completely missing the point. it makes sense that students who are taught not to have sex wont have as much sex. no one should bother to argue that. what is of concern are teen pregnancy rates and STD's. you know what also makes sense? that kids who are taught to have sex safely are more likely to do so than those who arent. hm.

    • 1 month ago
  • MotherForTruth
    • +1
      MotherForTruth  

    • The age of sexual activity definitely has been dropping rapidly. When I was a teen my friends and I used to think about platonic love and it was magical. In last 10 years or so sex has become commercialized business.

      Teens are not prepared to be parents but I feel that there will not be one solution for all. For some teens abstinence will work for others not. But I see the value of stronger message in support of abstinence.

      It may be off subject but I feel sex promotion is a calculated political distraction contributing to consumerism.

    • 1 month ago
  • deathmetalbrian
  • artemis6
    • +3
      artemis6  

    • It might work if the kids were also taking hormone suppressing drugs and the sexes were not allowed to mingle . Otherwise , delusional .

    • 1 month ago
  • Varex_Sythe
    • 0
      Varex_Sythe  
    • artemis6:

      In all likely hood that would just increase the percentage of homosexual encounters, which is probably the one thing sexual that these people hate more than anything not abstinence.

    • 1 month ago
  • 02
    • 0
      02  
    • artemis6:

      Yeah, we could have a ceremony to extract the pituitary. All the kids could get into Yoga positions - and we'd have a big drill to the 'third eye' region

    • 1 month ago
  • SleepDirt
  • feefer2010
    • +1
      feefer2010  

    • only teaching our kids about abstinence is never going to work. Not every kid is going to follow the Jonas brothers and wear purity rings, a piece of jewelery I've yet to understand ( *looks at finger* sorry I can't have sex I'm wearing my purity ring.) maybe they work on the same concept as tying a piece of string around your finger. What we need to do is teach about bothe abstience and safe sex. The more informed they are the better.

    • 1 month ago
  • 2helenahandbasket
    • -2
      2helenahandbasket  

    • I think kids should be given ALL the information, which also includes the notion that it's OK to NOT have sex. We say we teach our kids the facts, but we want to turn a blind eye to the fact that the ONLY way to prevent pregnancies or STDs is through abstinence. We make them think all they have to do is use a condom. That's a lie. The word "abstinence" makes us squirm, but it is the ONLY thing that will protect us EVERY time. Our kids need to see this as a viable option. Kids should not feel forced into feeling "normal", but should feel it's OK to NOT be sexually active.

    • 1 month ago
  • jubal
  • lifestudentno83
    • +2
      lifestudentno83  
    • 2helenahandbasket:

      That's the problem right there. Teenagers are rebellious, which means that they will usually disobey you if you tell them NOT to do something. Condoms are not a way to give these children the go-ahead to have sex.
      THEY ALREADY ARE HAVING SEX, WHICH IS THE PROBLEM.
      How is telling them not to do it going to stop them if they sneak out at night and get drunk at loud parties? Even if they are straight-A students who don't go out, you think they're hormones are going to be controlled by a purity ring/pledge/abstinence only talk? It's that incredibly naive and irresponsible line of thinking that has led to a rise in teen pregnancy over the past decades.

      If they're going to do it, which eventually they will whether they wait until they are adults or not, then they should at least know how to do it safely so daughters don't become unwed teenage mothers and sons don't become teenage deadbeat dads.

      Pushing a tired agenda behind a 66% success rate among those who pledged abstinence at 13-14 is not serving those 34% who pledged as well as the other kids who DIDN'T pledge to keep their virginity, as well as those who are in more sexually active groups. You can keep trying to force-feed what you believe down teenagers throats but it's not working at all. If you want further proof, look no further than Sarah Palin who happens to have an unwed, teenage mother for a daughter. Guess what? She was a product of that same failed abstinence-only upbringing.

    • 1 month ago
  • UndoInfluence
    • +2
      UndoInfluence  

    • Promoting abstinence only education to anyone with functioning genitalia and hormones is akin to telling anyone with a mouth and stomach that they shouldn't bother eating anything because they might get fat. These people need to grow up and stop treating their body like a 5 year old does.

    • 1 month ago
  • CalgarC
  • Saladin
    • +5
      Saladin  

    • Oh wow, 2/3 of abstinence participants didn't have sex at 13 or 14, how successful. =|

      I first had sex when I was almost 16 and the general consensus was that was pretty damn young. Most teens do it probably at 16-18 during their senior or junior year.

      So yeah, I'd guess the study -would- look successful if you completely leave out the most sexually active group of the bunch and put in the group who isn't even in high school yet.

      The guy knows it too, what a bullshit peddler.

    • 1 month ago
  • jubal
    • 0
      jubal  
    • Saladin:

      Agreed Saladin, this looks like a study made to order by the right wind advocates of "Just say NO to sex before marriage". Next they will be handing out promise rings.

    • 1 month ago
  • pjacobs51
  • mysticalweave
    • +7
      mysticalweave  

    • I went to a school that had VERY clear and graphic sex education starting in the sixth grade. We knew exactly how to keep ourselves from getting diseases as well as how to not get pregnant. This is important! No one in my graduating class became pregnant, not one and this was in a large school. If teens don't have the facts they will get pregnant and they will spread diseases. The very idea that teens or young adults are not going to have sex because abstinence education tells them not to is ludicrous. This has been going on for thousands of years we invented safe birth control methods for a reason let people know about them and use them.

    • 1 month ago
  • Nephwrack
  • Nephwrack
  • Varex_Sythe
    • +1
      Varex_Sythe  

    • Well, in the defense of people who advocate abstinence only programs, the star wars program might have worked, but the problem is IT DIDN'T!

    • 1 month ago
  • voyd21
  • Brazil617MA
    • +2
      Brazil617MA  

    • Abstinence should be an option not the only one. It is not doable and realistic to the majority of us. This is a waste of tax payer money supported by ignorant republicans and religious politicians. The harm/risk reduction model is much more effective and has been proven to get better results not only for pregnacy prevention as well as for STD and mostly for HIV rates !

    • 1 month ago
  • Chique
  • slarabee
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